Alcohol Drying

I do not recommend methanol.

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>One aspect that I had not anticipated was the availability of denatured ethanol alcohol outside the United States. In Canada and the UK denatured alcohol is methyl hydrate or methanol. I do not recommend the use of methanol due to health safety concerns. It is also important to obtain a Material Safety Data Sheet(MSDS) to access the dangers of using alcohol. Both ethanol and methanol are labeled highly flammable so appropriate safety measures need to be implemented when using alcohol. Ethanol is listed as harmful while methanol is considered toxic. It is incumbent upon anyone using the alcohol soaking procedure to read, understand and follow all precautions listed on the containers. Do not do anything you are not comfortable with.

Isopropyl alcohol is an alternative. Commonly available as an antiseptic at 70% concentration. I tested isopropyl and it appeared to work but I did not like the smell. So I didn't do extensive testing with it. It has larger molecules and is slower drying but that may not make a huge difference for bowl drying application.

Dave Smith

Only 24 chess pieces to go in Longview, WA.

Re: Alcohol = Ethanol?

Mark in IA

>You mentioned that denatured alcohol is ethanol. Is this the same ethanol used as a gasoline additive? Because here in corn country there are many ethanol plants. When this product makes it to the pump it costs around $2.00 per gallon. If this is true, it might make a much cheaper alternative. Of course I did pickup 3 gallons of denatured alcohol lately to try out but it cost about $10.00 per gallon.

Ethanol = big taxes

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>Ethanol has been the intoxicant of choice for centuries in one form or other. You can buy pure ethanol at the liquor store in the bottle labeled Everclear. In order to keep from paying liquor taxes ethanol is denatured with a substance that makes it unfit to consume. Methanol is a common denaturant because it is cheap and can make you go blind in smaller amounts and will kill you in larger doses. Some thing that will probably ruin your day. Since ethanol is derived from farm crops I would expect a person from Iowa would promote any process that would foster increased use.

Dave Smith

Only 24 more chess pieces to go in Longview, WA.

Re: Ethanol = big taxes

Jesper, Denmark

>Methanol is no longer normally used as a denaturant because of it's toxidity. The point of denaturing is not to kill you, but to make you puke, so you do not use it as a beverage.

MEK does that, and is commonly used. There are many others, depending on the intended use of the stuff.

Yeah, but...

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>Hi Jesper,

Good to see your name. I know there are several things that can be added to alcohol to avoid paying tax. When I did research several years ago I had to chuckle when I read that shellac could be added. That is when I learned more than I wanted to about denatured ethanol alcohol. When I looked up the brand of alcohol I buy it listed methanol as the denaturant. It sounded better than other stuff they use.

Is denatured ethanol available in Denmark? I have been asked by people in Canada and the UK where they can get denatured ethanol. If I were producing and supplying a product I could understand being asked that question. I have no clue what to tell these people.

I would like to visit Denmark someday.

Dave Smith

One quarter Danish in Longview, WA.

Re: Yeah, but...

Jesper, Denmark

>There are many kinds of alcohol available here.

Denatured alcohol is used for cleaning windows and for mixing in gasoline in winter to stop freezing problems in carburators. This is maybe a little strange sounding from a US perspective, but our climate is quite wet and not too cold in winter - around 35�F - right where freezing in carburators is likely to happen.

I do not know about Canada, but the UK should be in a similar situation to here.

Re: Yeah, but...

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>That sounds like methanol if it is added to gasoline to prevent freezing. The nomenclature is the problem. Ask for denatured alcohol in Canada or UK and you will be given methyl hydrate a.k.a. wood alcohol. Denatured alcohol in the States is 95% ethanol.

So what is your take on drying roughed out bowls using alcohol? I assume you saw the original thread with all the discussion.

It is 54 here on the wet side of the mountains in Washington State. And, believe it or not, it is raining. Sounds like I would be right at home with your weather.

Dave Smith

About 70 miles East of the big pond in Longview, WA.

Re: Yeah, but...

Jesper, Denmark

>Dave, I have not used the alcohol method, but if you check the thread above, you will see my analalysis of the function - physical chemistry wise. Alcohol and other low boiling solvents are used in industry to "dry" things by having an effect on the relatively higher concentration of water in the vapor phase. An example is that iso-Propanol is used extensively in the semiconductor industry to clean wafers for this purpose. Acetone is also used, but has more of an odor and is more flammable.

Our "Carburator Sprit" can actually be any alcohol mixture, dependent on what is cheap in the market. They all act as co-solvents, making water miscible with the gasoline, so that if you add a quart to your tank, the little water in the bottom gets mixed in and eventually gets burned in the engine.

The reason that ethanol is sold as 95% ETOH and 5% water is that it forms an azeotrope with water and the boiling/distillation vapor contains more water than ethanol till the liquid phase is 95%. Then the vapor and the liquid stay at 95%, so you cannot distill it further. To get to anhydrous alcohol, you need another column and a third component, which is expensive and leaves undesirable trace elements in the alcohol. Benzene has been used in the past, but is a carcinogen.

Enough chemistry.

Although I have not tried it, it seems very reasonable that drying from the inside would tend to put the outside in compression as the inside shrinks. The key to success is probably "fast enough, but not too fast" to stop the insides from cracking.

The weather here is a bit like NW USA, but a bit cooler all year.